


Flannels and Skinny Jeans and Vibrators, oh my!

by SapphicScholar



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Porn With Plot, Sex Toys, Smut, bit of fake dating, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:15:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24038749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicScholar/pseuds/SapphicScholar
Summary: "But then Alex remembered that she’d just paid almost $50 for an Uber ride she’d have to repeat in a few minutes all because this woman didn’t bother checking the luggage tag that so clearly hung off the side of her bag. 'My bag,' she demanded, holding a hand out."Ducking out of view, Maggie reappeared a moment later with Alex’s bag in her hand. 'I gave you yours, now show me mine,' she teased."Or the "wrong suitcase" cracky Sanvers one-shot that caught feelings and got real smutty real fast
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Comments: 45
Kudos: 405





	Flannels and Skinny Jeans and Vibrators, oh my!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the SFWQCon (and Zipps and IronicPotential for all their work on it) for giving me a boost of inspiration to get back to writing for these two!

First it had been the two-hour flight delay.

Then it was the in-air turbulence that made it impossible to sleep.

Then it was the pain in the ass sitting in the aisle seat who decided to let everyone from the back of the plain disembark before their row.

And now, apparently, it was whatever airline employee had manhandled her suitcase so badly it looked like it had aged a decade overnight.

Grumbling to herself, Alex grabbed the newly tattered strap of her duffel bag and threw it over her shoulder, making a beeline for the shuttle before it could leave without her. Maybe she could just…skip the first few sessions of the retreat. She’d be a much better participant if she could get a few hours of sleep first. Really, her napping was in everyone’s best interests.

By the time she made it to the hotel, having nearly nodded off on the ride over, Alex had decided she would skip the “meet and greet”—as if she would ever have voluntarily gone to something like that—and the first session on “team building.” It would give her three whole hours to nap and shower and hopefully start feeling human again.

Check-in was blessedly simple, and within a matter of minutes, Alex was swiping her key card in the door and doing her routine check of the room for anything suspicious, then doing a second sweep through for any amenities she might want to take advantage of. And even though she was still beyond angry at J’onn for making her attend this government leadership retreat before transitioning into her new role at the DEO, she could admit that the room was nice—way nicer than the places they ended up in during stake-outs and missions. It even had a second room with a workspace and table—not that she really saw herself using them, but still, it was nice to feel valued enough to merit an upgrade. And the bathroom…damn. It was almost worth five days of awful corporate leadership buzzwords for the size of the shower alone.

Figuring she should be responsible, Alex grabbed her bag to hang up the fancy work clothes that only came out for conferences, undercover operations, and meetings with liaisons from the handful of other government offices that knew the DEO existed.

Only…there were none of the blazers she had packed to be found.

Alex narrowed her eyes at the rolled up t-shirts and flannels that most definitely did not belong to her.

Great. Of all the ways to start this week out…

And no luggage tag. That would be too easy.

Alex pulled out some of the flannels, rummaging around in the bag for anything that might identify the mystery person. A stack of skinny jeans. Bras and underwear she tried to avoid touching. And then…

Oh.

Of all the fucking things…

Alex closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and tried to tell herself that the person who packed little more than flannel and skinny jeans and a vibrator in a duffel that looked like it had been through hell and back would still be responsible enough to return Alex’s actual bag to her in something like the condition she’d left it in.

Inhale. Exhale.

Trying to nudge her way around the offending pale blue wand, Alex peered into the bag for anything that might have a name or an address or any hint as to who this mystery woman was.

As she was daintily pushing the offending sex toy to the side using a hotel pen she’d found on the bedside table, Alex’s phone rang.

“Danvers,” she practically barked over the line, the combination of sleep deprivation and stress enough to make even basic civilities a hassle.

“Uh…are you A. Danvers?”

“What? Who are you?”

“I’m Maggie. Maggie Sawyer.” A beat. “I think I have your luggage.”

“Now you notice,” Alex snapped.

“Look, A, whoever you are, I called you as soon as I figured it out.”

Alex let out a huff of air and tried to count to ten before responding like Kara suggested she try at work. She made it to two. “Where are you staying?”

“Some cabin. Hold on.” Alex could hear shuffling over the line. “Maple Grove.” Before Alex could point out that there was nothing helpful in anything this Maggie woman had said, she was reciting an address that Alex quickly jotted down, only realizing afterward that she was using her vibrator-moving pen and flinging it across the desk.

“I’ll be there in 30,” Alex said and hung up before Maggie could reply.

After ordering a rather expensive Uber to take her all the way outside of the town’s limits into the rural wooded areas to the north, Alex shoved the handful of shirts she’d pulled out of the duffel back into it and threw it over her shoulder. With one last wistful look over her shoulder at the shower and the king-sized bed, Alex pulled open the door and resigned herself to losing a whole hour of the time she could have been using to nap.

\---

As the sign for Maple Grove came into view, Alex groaned. A _couple’s_ retreat.

“Which one?” the driver asked, gesturing at the sprawling drives that led down to cabins, each set off far enough from the others to feel private.

Checking the notes Maggie had given her, Alex pointed down at the third one. “There.”

A moment later, the car rolled up in front of a cabin that looked like it had been plucked straight out of a Hallmark movie.

“Can you wait here? I’ll be ordering a ride back in less than a minute.”

“Sorry, already accepted another ride.” He didn’t look all that apologetic, though, and Alex could feel her mood worsening with every step.

She pounded on the door, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited.

When it swung open, a small woman poked her head around and shot a smile in Alex’s direction. “Hey there. Sorry again about the mix up.”

“I…” And the thing was, Alex _wanted_ to be angry. _Was_ still angry. But there was also a little part of her brain that sounded awfully dopey that couldn’t think more than: _oh. Pretty lady_. “Yeah.” But then she remembered that she’d just paid almost $50 for an Uber ride she’d have to repeat in a few minutes all because this woman didn’t bother checking the luggage tag that so clearly hung off the side of her bag. “My bag,” she demanded, holding a hand out.

Ducking out of view, Maggie reappeared a moment later with Alex’s bag in her hand. “I gave you yours, now show me mine,” she teased.

“Don’t see how you possibly confused the two,” Alex grumbled as she passed Maggie’s significantly more worn bag to her.

“I’m running on an hour of sleep and shitty airplane coffee,” Maggie scoffed. “Give me a break.”

“You’re just lucky one of us was responsible enough to use a luggage tag.”

“I’m not—you know what, not worth it. Thanks.”

“I—yeah.” Alex felt herself deflating as the other woman’s anger gave way to a quiet resignation.

“So…you can go now.”

“Right, I guess you probably want to enjoy your romantic weekend away.”

Maggie snorted and shook her head.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Alex felt herself growing defensive. “What?”

“It’s just me.”

“Oh. I, uh, the sign…I just assumed.”

“Apparently a surprise vacation isn’t enough to make up for cancelling three dates in a row for work. But they don’t really do refunds here.” Maggie shrugged. “So ya know, I made an effort, and all I got was a bitter ex-girlfriend and a week at this cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

“Ah.” Alex rubbed at the back of her neck. She’d heard that line enough times at the end of the few ill-fated attempts at relationships she’d had since starting at the DEO. “Well that’s her loss.”

“Don’t think she sees it that way, Danvers.”

“Look I’m just saying, as someone with several ex-girlfriends who’d tell you that I chose work over them a few too many times, I get it.” She shrugged, uncomfortable with the amount of sharing that seemed to be happening. “Work matters too.”

Maggie nodded once, then twice. “Right. Sometimes I wonder… Never mind. I’m sure you want to get out of here. Go enjoy your vacation.”

It was Alex’s turn to snort then. “Not a vacation. So very far from a vacation.”

“Work?”

“Worse. Work-sponsored leadership retreat.”

Wrinkling her nose, Maggie shook her head. “You’re right. Way worse.”

“Yeah.”

“So really, maybe you should be thanking me for saving you from the terrible trust fall activity that’s probably happening right now.”

Alex practically shuddered at the thought. But still: “Don’t push it.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll let you go.”

“I just have to call for a ride.”

Maggie nodded, stepping back into the cabin but leaving the door ajar.

A moment later, Alex found herself knocking, then sheepishly poking her head around the door. “Uh, Maggie?”

“Yeah?” a voice sounded from behind the door to what Alex assumed was the bedroom.

“Do you have service out here?”

Maggie reappeared, a grim expression on her face. “No… Something about building intimacy without external distractions.”

“Then how do you get out of here?”

“The main cabin has a router. I can walk you over there. Or, I mean, I dragged you all the way out here. If you want a ride, I rented a car for the week, and I could drive you back.”

Alex weighed the options. On the one hand: taking Maggie’s offer would get her back faster without having to pay another 50 bucks and meet whoever ran this horrendous no-wifi couples retreat. But on the other: she’d have half an hour alone in a car with some random woman whose vibrator she’d seen. And oh god. That mental image. Which was suddenly a lot less disturbing than it had been and a lot more…something Alex shouldn’t be thinking about.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to put you out of your way.”

“It’s me, this cabin, and the woods for the next week. I think I can handle a quick car ride into Vermont’s version of downtown.”

“Uh, okay.”

A few minutes later, Alex found herself in the passenger’s seat of a Nissan Sentra—and honestly, did car rental companies even buy other car models, or had they all just decided the Sentra was the standard bearer for mediocre mid-sized sedans?—as they made their way out of Maple Grove.

“I’m sorry for the mix up,” Maggie said, finally breaking the silence that had been growing almost oppressive.

“It happens, I guess.”

“I swear, I didn’t go, like, creeping in your stuff or whatever. I unzipped your bag, realized it wasn’t mine, and then immediately called the number on the luggage tag.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks.” Alex swallowed heavily, cringing at the thought of Maggie’s distinctly less organized duffel bag that would make it abundantly clear that Alex had, in fact, gone creeping through Maggie’s stuff. “I, um… I tried to find something with a name or a phone number. So…sorry about that.”

“Oh, it’s fi—” Maggie trailed off mid-word, her cheeks flushing as her grip on the wheel tightened. “That’s cool. Yep.”

They spent the next five minutes in silence.

Alex tried to channel Kara, to think about what she would say to make things seem okay, to make another person feel better.

After another two horrendously awkward minutes, Alex cleared her throat. “Being single’s not that bad, though, right?” She grimaced as the words left her mouth. “Please ignore me.”

“It’s fine.”

“I just mean, like, it’s cool. I’m not judging you, or whatever.”

“Oh Jesus Christ, can we just name the elephant in the rental car?”

“I saw your vibrator,” Alex blurted out. “I’m not judging you. I didn’t touch it. I used a hotel pen to move it. But maybe you should wash it anyway.”

Maggie bobbed her head slowly up and down. “I was wrong.”

“What?”

“That made things a hundred times worse.”

Alex burst out laughing. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Now we both have a story that we’ll laugh about five years from now.”

Unable to resist, Alex shrugged. “I think I’ll probably have a good laugh about it tonight.”

The last of the tension hanging in the air seemed to dissipate as Maggie scowled over at Alex. “I hope you have fun laughing at my expense while I’m stuck pretending I have a girlfriend and sitting alone in a stupid cabin with no wifi.”

“Wait. Why are you pretending you have a girlfriend?”

“Joan gave me this look. Like she was going to hug me or something. Because obviously I had to call her back when I was trying to get a refund and give her the whole sob story. So then I lied and told her that Jess and I got back together and that she was just driving up later today.”

“Joan owns the place?”

“Yeah.”

“Sounds right.”

“Mhmm. She’s so excited for Jess and me. Apparently this is ‘just the place’ to reconnect and rekindle the flame.”

“Gag me.”

“Right?” Maggie exclaimed. “And they have, like, breakfast delivery and shit, so I’m gonna be making a fake lump in the bed every morning and acting like Jess sleeps like a rock.”

Alex snorted. “You could always turn your vibrator on loud and tie a sock around the bedroom door.”

“Oh my god, you’re brilliant. She won’t be able to look me in the eye for the whole week!”

“Now if only you had an equally brilliant suggestion to get me out of this leadership retreat, maybe I’d consider us even…”

\---

The next morning, Alex woke up much too early for her body’s internal clock, already dreading the full day of team-building activities on her schedule. After a quick shower, she dragged herself down to the main conference room for a cup of lukewarm coffee and a muffin that she shoved into her mouth to try to avoid casual conversation with Paul, her partner from the previous night’s activities.

As the leaders began to corral them into their small groups for the day, Alex’s phone blared out.

“Sorry, it’s work—I’ve really got to take this,” Alex muttered as she slipped out of the room. “Danvers,” she answered.

“Danvers, your plan backfired,” Maggie hissed into the phone, her voice barely above a whisper.

“What?”

“Joan wants to give me advice about intimacy—something about not rushing the physical before we’ve rebuilt the emotional.”

Alex snorted, trying to disguise it with a cough as one of the other participants walked by on their way back from the bathrooms.

“What do I do?”

“Just avoid the woman. It shouldn’t be that hard.”

“I’m literally hiding behind the main cabin now. She’s supposedly getting me some boardgame where you talk about your feelings. I don’t know!”

“At least you’re not gonna spend the whole morning building some fake town and wasting hours talking about divvying up roles when we all know Greg is gonna take over because he thinks he’s better than anyone.”

“Wait…you wanted me to repay the favor, right?”

“Uh, what?”

“Dr. Danvers,” Maggie said, her voice suddenly taking on an urgent tone. “I’m afraid there’s been a horrible accident, and we need you to report to Maple Grove immediately.”

“What?”

“It really can’t wait. There’ll be a car waiting for you outside within the hour.”

“I…” Alex glanced into the room, catching site of Greg gesturing too broadly as her team looked on helplessly. She cleared her throat. “I understand. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

\---

“I feel like I’m playing hooky,” Alex laughed as she sunk into the seat, inhaling that unique rental car smell…something like artificial pine needles and canned air and a lingering hint of cigarette smoke that they never did manage to get out of the fabric.

“I’m sure Greg doesn’t even notice you’re gone.”

“I’m betting Joan has noted your absence.”

“I stuffed a sweatshirt with a pillow and put sunglasses on it when I drove past the main cabin.”

Glancing at the monstrosity now strewn across the backseat, Alex laughed loudly. “Did she buy it?”

“I sped by fast. We’re gonna do a slow drive by on the way back in.”

“Wait… Are you about to subject me to Joan?”

“No. I just…I need her to see a real woman and get off my case.”

“So I’m your fake girlfriend?”

“You’re a warm body in my car. Joan can take it however Joan wants to take it.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “You’re absurd.”

“Says the woman who told me to turn my vibrator on high and pull a When Harry Met Sally during breakfast delivery.”

Alex’s cheeks flushed at the mental image.

Luckily Maggie kept talking, complaining about all the happy couples she ran into when she’d tried to go for a hike the night before, everyone asking her whose “better half” she was and where _he_ ’d gone off to and laughing like they were all in on some big happy hetero joke together. She’d spent the rest of the night shut up in her cabin, reading one of the books she brought.

In an attempt to make Maggie feel less shitty about her night, Alex regaled her with stories of ice breaker games and an entire hour spent on the word “innovate” and some auto-generated wordcloud that made everyone _ooh_ and _ahh_. She talked about spending a half hour in the bathroom during the trust fall activity that, yes, had happened, and how her partner offered her pepto bismol when she came back to her complete and utter humiliation.

Even though it had been some of the most painful hours of her life, the way Maggie’s whole face lit up in delight at the stories, a loud, barking laugh filling the car, a cute little dimple popping on her cheek…Alex thought it might have been worth it.

As they turned into Maple Grove, Maggie turned to Alex and instructed, “Smile.”

And, true to her word, Maggie slowed the car down to a crawl as they neared the main cabin, waving at an older woman in a flowing periwinkle tunic who practically flew out the door to greet them.

“Maggie! We wondered where you went!”

Despite only having seen her real smile a few times, Alex could already spot the obviously faked one that was closer to a grimace. “Hi, Joan.”

“Jess! We haven’t met, though I did get to hear how much fun you two have been having reconnecting.” She winked and laughed, and Alex’s cheeks turned a deep shade of scarlet as she stammered. Joan waved a hand in the air. “No need for embarrassment! That’s what we’re here for. But I was telling Maggie this morning that I have a wonderful game—I made it myself, actually—and I think it could do wonders for rebuilding trust.”

“I…”

But Joan was already talking again, and Alex could only nod along with her. Something about “just have to find it” and “know I left it around here somewhere,” and finally they got away with some vague agreement that Joan would drop it off later.

“She’s…something,” Alex said when they finally got away.

“Yep.”

“Think she’s earnest, or is she just high as a kite?”

Maggie laughed. “What?”

“Did you really not smell the weed?”

“I don’t think I could smell anything over the incense that she must wash her clothes with.”

Laughing, they pulled back into the driveway of the cabin, and Alex shuffled in the door behind Maggie, suddenly realizing they didn’t exactly have a plan for what to do with the day.

“Why did we come back to the cabin with no wifi in the middle of nowhere?”

Maggie opened her mouth, then closed it. Then blinked once, and twice. “I don’t actually know.”

“Good.”

“Well, no, there’s actually some kinda cool stuff here. If you’re into outdoorsy things, there are hiking trails, and if we walk far enough there’s a lake with some kayaks and stuff. And there’s a hot tub out back, which is kind of amazing. Or we could get lunch—the breakfast was pretty good.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess I’d be down for a hike.” Alex shrugged, glancing down at her clothes. This morning had been their “casual” session, so at least she was in jeans, even if they weren’t exactly the ideal clothes for crunching through the leaves and dirt.

“I can lend you a sweatshirt, since it’s a little cold.”

“Thanks.”

A moment later, an NCPD hoodie was being thrown at her. “You from National City?”

“Yeah.” Maggie’s forehead crinkled. “If it wasn’t obvious, I work for NCPD.”

“You never know. Might just be one of those weird tourists who’s really into buying gear from the local PD.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you think so little of me.”

“Literally all I know about you is that you stole my luggage and made up a whole story about reconciling with your ex-girlfriend for some stranger.”

“Also that I travel with my favorite vibrator—don’t forget that fun fact.”

Alex’s cheeks warmed. “I was trying to spare you the embarrassment.”

“What’s a little shame between acquaintances?”

Alex didn’t quite know how to respond, so instead she scuffed the toes of her boot along the floor and volunteered, “I’m from National City, too. Work in law enforcement, but for one of those three letter organizations.”

“Oh god, I picked a _fed_ for my fake girlfriend?” Maggie threw a hand over her heart. “This may be a shame from which I never recover.” She practically swooned and fell back onto the couch.

“Yes, Scarlett O’Hara, a fed saved your ass. But I’m sure you local cops already know how that feels.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute, or I’d drop you off at the main cabin and tell Joan you requested one of her personal feelings check-ins.”

Alex shuddered at the thought.

“You hungry now, or do you wanna try to walk around for a bit first?”

With a shrug, Alex pulled on the sweatshirt. “Down for a quick hike.”

As they walked, they chatted about work and National City. Maggie talked about volunteering with a local alien community center, and Alex felt some of the lingering wariness fading away. Alex told Maggie about some of the hidden gems Kara had found for the best food and baked goods in National City over the years, leaving out the part about how Kara had, sometimes, quite literally followed her nose to them.

They traded work horror stories, and within ten minutes, Maggie had Alex pegged as DEO, which led to a tense stand-off and then a final begrudging admission that J’onn _had_ suggested Alex would want to find contacts in the Science Division to serve as a formal liaison between the two offices.

“You’re lucky we’re not having this conversation a few years ago,” Maggie said. “I’d have kicked your ass over some of the policies you guys used to enforce.”

Swallowing heavily, Alex nodded her head. After Cadmus and J’onn’s outing and watching Kara’s reactions to the rise in anti-alien sentiment, Alex had given herself a bit of time to reflect on some of the things she’d once believed. And what she found wasn’t always pretty. Even still, she suspected there were several things left for Maggie to push her on—and, if this liaison thing worked out, probably _would_ push her on in the coming years. She ignored the way her chest warmed at the thought of something like years still to come with Maggie at her side, teasing her and asking her questions that mattered and pushing her to do better, to be better. Maybe she’d gotten a bit of a contact high from Joan…

“Hold my hand,” Maggie ordered, grabbing Alex’s hand in her own and letting out a loud, obviously fake laugh.

“Wha—?” but then some sickeningly sweet looking couple was walking by, practically tangled in each other’s arms, and Alex got it. A little bit.

“Oh hi, Maggie!” the woman called. “This must be Jess! We’re so glad you two are here.”

Maggie grunted in acknowledgement.

“It’s so nice that Maple Grove nurtures all kinds of love, isn’t it?”

Alex scowled at them, and the woman seemed to recoil a little.

“Yep, it’s great, Karen,” Maggie said.

“It’s Caitlyn.”

“Mm, right.”

Pulling a bit on Maggie’s arm, Alex tossed a wave over her shoulder at Caitlyn and the bland-looking man beside her. “Babe,” she said loudly enough for it to carry. “I’m so hungry after all the sex this morning.”

Maggie snorted at the way the other couple startled at that. “You’re right. With the kind of love between two women, who even knows when to stop?”

Snickering into her hand, Alex tried to maintain a serious face as she nodded and pulled Maggie in the direction of their cabin as quickly as she could.

“I literally would’ve have fled this cabin in the middle of the night if I’d had to deal with them alone again,” Maggie groaned.

“Well hopefully now they’ll never talk to you again.”

“One can dream…”

When they got back to the cabin, they found Joan sitting out on the front porch, humming an off-key tune under her breath as she drummed her fingers along the top of a box.

“Uh, can we help you?” Maggie asked.

“I found the game!”

“Oh. I didn’t know it’d be so fast.”

“It’s all up here somewhere,” Joan said, tapping a finger against her head. “And, between you and me, the missus has a mind like a steel trap.”

“The missus?” Alex and Maggie mouthed at each other as Joan pulled herself back up to standing.

“I’ll show you how to play while you wait for the lunch orders to be ready.”

“But we didn’t order yet.”

Joan just laughed. “I put an order in for you. Who doesn’t like a grilled cheese? I got an extra one for me, too!”

“Definitely high,” Alex whispered.

Within a matter of minutes, Joan’s deck of index cards was sitting on top of a repurposed Candy Land board with homemade illustrations, some of which, if Alex looked closely enough, seemed rather obscene. Either Alex had a filthy mind, or Lollypop Forest was no longer a PG-rated attraction.

“So the cards are color-coded,” Joan was explaining, gesturing at the stripes of highlighter that adorned the tops of each card. You roll the die, head on down the path, and pull whatever color matches your square. Or pick another if you don’t like it. I’m not really a rules person.”

Alex found herself grinning and glanced over to find Maggie biting back a laugh.

“Why don’t you try?” Joan held out the die to Maggie.

“Uh, okay.” She rolled a 4 and landed on orange.

“Oh bad luck,” Joan muttered as she plucked the top orange card and read it aloud. “What is one thing about Jess here that annoys you?” She shrugged. “Well, they’re meant to get you talking.”

“Um… She always insists that I take her things on purpose when it’s clearly an accident.”

“You should’ve seen Helen’s face when I tried to use one of her fancy guest towels to clean up a bit of a kitchen mishap. You’d think I’d chosen it on purpose. As if I can tell the difference between thread counts…” Joan shook her head, looking far too fond for what was supposedly a memory of getting yelled at. “Anyway, now she buys me my own towels in a different color.” Lowering her voice, she added, “Between you and me, though, sometimes I still forget.”

Alex laughed as she reached for the die. “Maybe I’ll need to start putting tags and labels into Maggie’s bags.”

Maggie rolled her eyes.

“A 6!” Joan practically cried with excitement as the die settled. “Yippee! That brings you right to the rainbow bridge.”

“So I cross over and get a blue card?”

“On the rainbow bridge?” Joan scoffed. “Only if you’re playing like a rule-following square. No, you tell us all about your coming out.”

“Um…are you sure? Won’t that leave me trapped on the bridge instead of on the path?”

“Do me a solid, Jess. Let the rainbow bridge be a little gay. Do you know how many straight couples I have to deal with every day? All of them wanting to tell me how progressive they are and how lovely it is that my wife and I run such a quaint little business here?”

“Okay, okay.” Alex held her hands up in surrender, memories of Caitlyn and Mr. Caitlyn still fresh in her mind. “Um, I don’t know. I had a big crush on my high school best friend Vicki, but I didn’t really realize it at the time. But then I went away to college, and suddenly people were really open about that sort of thing. I made out with some girl from my chem lab at a party and never looked back. Or, well, no, I still brought a beard home for Thanksgiving the next year, but there was this whole thing, and…anyway, yeah. Never again after that.”

“Well that sounds like a story and a half, but we can give Maggie a turn for now.”

Maggie looked stricken, and, unsure what to do, Alex just shoved the die into her hand. “Uh, here, roll away. Let’s get you a new card.”

The look of gratitude was almost too much for Alex to handle, and she barely noticed Joan’s hand squeezing her upper arm or the murmured, “That’s good, you take care of your girl.”

“Purple,” Maggie said as she moved her marker.

“Oh goodie, here we go: if you could plan a dream date, what would it involve?”

“Honestly? I like casual. I don’t know, take me out to a bar that isn’t full of pretentious assholes. Buy me a glass of decent scotch. Play a few rounds of pool. Maybe afterwards we go get desert—tiramisu is my favorite, but I’d never say no to vegan ice cream.” Alex wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know, go home afterwards, maybe watch something, make out on the couch…yeah.”

“That sounds…really nice,” Alex admitted, completely missing Joan’s delighted smile.

When Alex rolled, she landed on red. With a waggle of her eyebrows, Joan read the question: “What is the sexiest part of Maggie’s body?”

Maggie spluttered. “We’re not answering—”

“Her ass,” Alex answered at the same time, shrugging at Maggie’s open-mouthed gaping. “What? It’s a good ass.” Those skinny jeans weren’t good at hiding vibrators, but they sure did great things for the view from behind.

Joan hooted loudly.

“I mean, your dimples are pretty cute, too,” Alex added as a kind of peace offering. “And you’ve got really beautiful hair. And eyes.”

“Well, I better skedaddle before we get a repeat performance of this morning. Just return the game when you feel it’s imparted all the lessons it was brought here to teach you.”

Alex waved Joan off, starting to feel awkward in the heavy silence that had descended.

Once the door closed behind Joan, Maggie glanced up, then ducked her head down again. “You, uh”—she swallowed—“you didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s fine. I mean, I’m still human. And gay. And even if you’re a local cop and a luggage thief, I can admit you’re gorgeous.”

Hugging her knees to her chest, Maggie sent a soft smile in Alex’s direction. “You’re not so bad yourself, Danvers. For a fed, that is.”

Alex wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but somehow they kept playing.

For _hours_.

Over buttery grilled cheeses, then out in the sunshine of the front porch.

They’d long ago abandoned the board when a bottle of scotch arrived, courtesy of Joan.

Alex had opened up about struggling in grad school, about never feeling like enough compared to Kara, always feeling like she was letting her mom down, even though they’d started to hash out some of their issues since Kara came out as Supergirl—though that detail was one Alex didn’t share.

Maggie talked about her disastrous coming out, about how ever since then she’d had the bad tendency to self-sabotage all of her relationships whenever they got to be too much, too close to her heart, too filled with the potential to hurt her. She talked about cheating on Emily, about taking extra shifts when she knew it would annoy her girlfriends, about pursuing aliens from planets with no cultural norms around marriage or expectations of partnering for life.

Alex knew Maggie was trusting her with a lot, but she couldn’t help latching onto one phrase she’d used. “Maggie…you’re not a bad person, you know that, right?”

But Maggie just shrugged, her whole body sagging under the weight of her confession.

“Sure, you made some bad choices, but we all have. Trust me, I’ve made my fair share. But sometimes you do what you have to do to protect yourself, and that’s okay. I’m not, like, judging you. Not that you should care about what I think or whatever, but just…I don’t know. You do a lot of good, too.”

“I don’t know.”

“You do, Maggie,” Alex insisted. “Literally the first thing you did when you showed up in a new city fresh off a nasty breakup was to look for community centers to volunteer in. And you actually _do_. Not in the New Year’s resolution kinda way where you do it for a couple weeks to pat yourself on the back, but the, like, day-to-day investment kinda way.”

“You know you’re pretty great yourself, Alex.”

“I’m…fine. I get that now. I don’t have to compare myself to my su—sister. Or my mom. Or whatever.”

“I mean, no, comparisons don’t help anyone, but you’re more than fine. You’re this amazing woman, and I can tell how smart you are, and you’re, like, barely 30 and already being named as second-in-command of this government organization. Plus,” she shrugged, “I don’t like being around most people, but I like being around you.”

Alex nodded. “I…same.”

“So, you’re welcome for stealing your luggage.”

And just like that, whatever weird…frisson of _something_ was building between them crackled and fizzed out into laughter.

\---

Alex woke up the next morning, a little hungover and displeased by the hefty Uber bill and the promise of a full day of team bonding activities. She’d much rather be spending the day with Maggie. Not that Maggie was necessarily hers to be with. But still.

The morning activities crept by at a snail’s pace. She had to take personality test after personality test—Myers Briggs and mgrams and something with colors that she didn’t really remember because Maggie had sent her an update on breakfast and Joan from the area of the trail close enough to the main cabin to get service.

Over lunch, Maggie called, and Alex excused herself from the conversation she was barely even a participant in to answer her phone.

“Hello?”

“Danvers! How’s it going?”

“Eh,” Alex shrugged. “Could be worse. Maybe. We’re supposed to spend all afternoon in a conflict resolution workshop.”

“Better idea: come get hands on conflict resolution experience over here at Maple Grove.”

“Oh yeah? Who’s in conflict?”

“Me and the straights, Danvers. Keep up.”

Alex snorted into the phone, then cleared her throat. “I probably shouldn’t…”

“But don’t you _want_ to?”

After a moment’s indecision, Alex caved. “Yeah.”

“Great! I’m already in the car, so I’ll see you in 20. Maybe change into some workout clothes, and we can try the kayaks.”

“So presumptuous,” Alex muttered, but she was already halfway to the elevators herself.

\---

As it turned out, there were only two kayaks. Both of which had already been claimed. As had the one canoe. Which left Alex and Maggie with a lime green pedal boat.

“I haven’t felt this dorky since middle school when I had braces and got my first pair of glasses,” Alex grumbled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re clearly the coolest kids on the lake.”

Alex just glared as Caitlyn and Mr. Caitlyn zipped by them in their little kayak while Alex’s foot clunked off the wet pedal. Again.

“Tell me about your morning,” Maggie said, giving up on pedaling altogether as she leaned back, cradling her head in her hands.

“Bunch of personality tests. Apparently I’m not great on following rules, and I don’t handle incompetence well, but despite all that, I’m a ‘natural leader.’” She rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure everyone’s results were rigged to say that.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m more than happy to let you take the lead on pedaling us back to shore.”

“Fuck off. You know we both have to pedal if we want to do more than make big stupid circles.”

“So bossy,” Maggie teased, sticking her tongue out at Alex and getting a faceful of water in return. “Alex!”

“Oh hush, I barely got you.” Before Alex could point out that most of Maggie’s shirt was still dry, she’d gotten drenched herself. And then it was an all out war until they were both soaked and shivering in the cool fall air.

Maggie rubbed her hands up and down her arms as they began pedaling back to shore, both of them desperate for warm, dry clothing. “I regret everything.”

“A familiar feeling to you, I’m sure,” Alex snarked.

“Probably about how you felt when you first signed your contract as a fed.”

They teased each other the rest of the way back to the shore, finally stumbling out of the boat and pulling it onto the planks.

The walk back to the cabin was significantly less pleasant than the trip to the lake, their shoes squishing with every step and fingers turning a light shade of blue in the cool of the woods. As they got close enough to see the cabin, Maggie picked her pace up into something like a jog, and by the time they were only a few yards away, she started shucking off layers.

When she began peeling off the tank top she wore as a base layer, Alex tripped over her feet. “What, uh, whatcha doing?”

“Hot tub.” Maggie clambered up onto the back deck and kicked off her shoes.

Alex felt her mouth grow dry as Maggie pushed her jeans down tan, muscular legs. And then the tank top was finally coming off, and apparently there were abs hiding beneath those plaid shirts. Alex tried to swallow.

“You coming?” Maggie yelled.

“I…I didn’t bring a bathing suit.”

“I’m not exactly in one, ya know,” Maggie teased. “And I’m fairly certain you noticed what I’m now wearing…” The corners of her mouth twitched up into a smirk, and Alex cursed herself for being so obvious.

“Right.” Alex nodded. She was no coward.

“Hey, but before you come in here, can you grab the scotch? And maybe some of the snacks that I picked up from the main cabin this morning?”

“Fine.”

While inside, Alex grabbed some towels and Joan’s game as well. No harm in having something in case they ran out of things to talk about. Plus, she was pretty sure it would make Joan’s year if she found them in the hot tub playing her oddly intimate Candy Land that, Alex had noticed the night before, had been renamed “Couple’s Land.”

When she got back out, Alex carefully distributed the snacks and drinks and game along the table that butted up against the edge of the hot tub, then draped the towels over the chairs in the sun. Waiting until Maggie’s attention was back on her, Alex slipped her shirt up and over her head, flexing ever so slightly as she pulled it off.

Maggie’s mouth hung open, and her eyes carefully tracked the movement of Alex’s hands as she dropped them down to the button of her jeans, slowly shimmying the wet denim over her hips and down her thighs. She couldn’t even be embarrassed about the utilitarian underwear—not when Maggie was looking at her like _that_.

It wasn’t until she was safely submerged in the water that Maggie managed to speak again, asking in a hoarse voice for Alex to pass the scotch.

Pretty soon, with stomachs full of chocolate chip cookies and bodies warmed by the combination of hot water and alcohol, they had relaxed back into conversation, every so often plucking one of the purple cards out and talking about their favorite activities and the best dates they’d ever been on—and the worst. They bonded over a shared unironic love of the Barenaked Ladies, and Alex grinned as Maggie waxed poetic about a date she’d gone on with some art history grad student who’d taken her to a museum and given her a tour of all the dirtiest, most homoerotic paintings in the place. Alex, in turn, talked about the axe throwing date that she’d gone on—the woman had been a total mismatch in terms of personality, but Alex had gotten a nice afternoon out of it.

Once they’d made it a little further into the bottle of scotch—and, Alex had to hand it to Joan, she had decent taste in liquor—Alex flipped over one of the red cards. “Oh.”

“What?” Maggie asked, propping her chin up on Alex’s shoulder to try to peek at the card.

“These”—Alex tapped the deck, her words coming out a little slower, softer around the edges as the alcohol loosened her tongue—“are the sexy cards.”

Maggie jolted slightly—just enough to tip her off balance as she fell into Alex’s lap, one hand gripping at Alex’s thighs to steady herself.

Alex gasped and tried to disguise it as a cough as Maggie clambered back into her own seat.

“We, uh, we don’t have to do them. If you don’t want to,” Maggie offered.

Plucking another red card—this one slightly less…intimate than the first—Alex smirked. “Why wouldn’t I want to hear about your first kiss, though?”

“Oh god,” Maggie groaned. “Paul Jacobson. Eighth grade dance. He had braces and cut my lip. I realized I didn’t like boys.”

Alex cackled and took another sip of the whiskey. “Lucas Girafalco. Spin the bottle freshman year of high school. He ended up being gay, too.”

Maggie plucked another card out of the deck. “Oh…now this one gets a little more risqué. First time taking someone to bed?”

Alex rubbed at the back of her neck. “Honestly? I don’t super remember it. We were really drunk. I was in grad school, and we met at some LGBTQ night at the big club near campus. She was pretty—red hair and just one dimple. It was fun. Probably pretty bad sex. We were both so hungover the next morning that I couldn’t even pry myself out of bed long enough to offer her coffee or breakfast.” Alex shrugged. “Could’ve been worse. What about you?”

“Sam, this very cute butch who was the head of the campus pride group. I don’t think they ever wanted a relationship, but they taught me everything I needed to know about treating a lady right.”

“That include stealing her luggage?”

Maggie glared, though the effect was somewhat muted by the smile that wouldn’t stop tugging up the corners of her mouth. “Who says I was trying to pick you up?”

“Well you’ve managed to get me half-naked in a hot tub at a couple’s resort. Some people might think you like me, Sawyer…”

Maggie licked her lips, her gaze suddenly dropping to Alex’s mouth.

Alex could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, drowning out anything else, making it hard to think of reasons why she shouldn’t just…lean in.

Shifting closer to Maggie, Alex tilted her head slightly, waiting for some sign that she wasn’t alone in wanting this, in feeling like there was some magnetic force drawing then closer and closer together.

Maggie ducked her head forward, her breath ghosting across Alex’s lips as their noses bumped together.

And then Maggie’s lips were on hers—soft and just a little tentative.

Alex drew a hand up to cup Maggie’s jaw, feeling Maggie shiver as Alex’s thumb swept across her cheek. It was soft and sweet and everything those first kisses hadn’t been. Until Maggie sucked Alex’s lower lip between her own, letting her teeth drag along it. And then Alex’s lips were parting for Maggie’s tongue, and where before it had been soft and tentative, suddenly it was wet and needy.

As Alex’s tongue flicked across Maggie’s lower lip, Maggie let out a keening whimper that left Alex’s heart racing, sending all of the blood in her body away from her brain and somewhere distinctly more pleasant.

When Maggie’s fingers tangled in Alex’s hair, Alex swung a leg across Maggie’s thighs, settling on her lap and letting their bodies mold together, hot water swirling all around them, leaving her skin sensitive and making all of Maggie’s touches feel like so much _more_. The feeling of Maggie’s hands slipping down her back and curling possessively around Alex’s hips was enough to have her moaning into Maggie’s mouth and grinding into her abs.

“Fuck, Alex,” Maggie gasped, pulling back and gulping down air. Her lips were kiss-swollen and her pupils blown wide with want. “Are you—is this okay?”

“Yeah,” Alex whispered, a soft smile on her lips, the desperate need for Maggie’s touch gentling into something like want and affection. “And you? You good?”

Maggie nodded, grinning up at Alex. “I’ll have to tell Joan her board game works after all.”

Rolling her eyes, Alex ducked her head forward again, letting her lips trail along Maggie’s jawline, then down her neck as she lost herself in the taste of Maggie’s skin and the feel of her hands and the little needy whimpers she was making.

“Yoohoo!”

“Fuck,” Alex yelped, pushing back, her knees slipping off the little bench seat and sending her splashing into the deeper water. She spluttered back up in time to hear Joan laughing and apologizing for interrupting, then listing off the dinner specials without a care in the world.

Alex barely heard what Maggie ordered for them, the rest of her senses only slowly filtering back in after everything had been reduced to _Maggie. Maggie. Maggie_.

By the time Joan left, Alex was fairly certain the moment had been broken. Perhaps permanently. And the grimace on Maggie’s face suggested she agreed.

Only then, Maggie stood up. Maggie stood up in little more than a soaked pair of tight black boyshorts and a bra. Maggie stood up with little rivulets of water running down planes of lithe muscle, like she’d just stepped out of the _Sports Illustrated_ swimsuit edition if it were made for lesbians.

“Fuck,” Alex croaked, her voice cracking on the word.

Maggie’s lips quirked up into a smirk. “See something you like, Danvers?”

And really, Alex had never been one to be bested like that.

So she dropped her hands to the edge of the hot tub, bracketing Maggie’s hips and bringing herself face first with Maggie’s abs. Then, maintaining a torturously slow pace, Alex dragged her tongue up lines of toned muscle, gasping as she felt Maggie’s fingers threading through her hair and holding her there.

“Alex,” Maggie whimpered.

“What do you need?”

Maggie practically sent them crashing back into the water in her haste to get her mouth back on Alex’s as she tugged Alex impossibly closer, hands groping at anything they could find.

“Food,” Alex finally managed, feeling like she was one well-placed stroke of Maggie’s fingers away from coming. “We should—we should wait for the food.” It had been bad enough being caught making out by Joan. She really didn’t need to be halfway to orgasm only to hear, “Yoohoo!” again.

“Right, right.” Maggie swallowed heavily, throat bobbing with the effort, then pulled herself back. She left several feet of space between them, as if she didn’t quite trust herself to be that close to Alex and _not_ touch her. Alex understood the sentiment perfectly.

“I’m…” Alex trailed off, trying to think of words that weren’t, “Please fuck me,” or, “Please let me fuck you.”

“Are you okay with mac and cheese?” Maggie asked.

Alex blinked. “What?”

“Mac and cheese. I ordered it for dinner. I don’t know, it was the first thing Joan said, and I figured she’d go away if I picked something.”

“Oh. Uh, sure.”

Maggie nodded. “Cool.”

“Yep.”

Alex drummed her fingers against the bench. “So…”

“Okay, Joan made it awkward, but I was having fun.”

Alex let out a loud exhale. “Oh thank god, me too.”

Grinning, Maggie inched closer to Alex again. “I know we’re kinda doing things out of order. First a romantic couple’s retreat, then making out, and only now talking about it, but, I don’t know. I went into this week expecting to be completely miserable, and then you showed up at my door, bitching at me about stealing your luggage, and somehow managed to become the best part of the trip.”

“Well, it’s not that hard to do when Caitlyn is my competition.”

The corners of Maggie’s eyes crinkled as she laughed. “Even if I had better options than Caitlyn, you’d still be my favorite part, Danvers.”

“You’ve definitely made the leadership retreat better.”

“By giving you an excuse to skip it, you mean,” Maggie teased.

“Shh, we’re forming an interagency partnership.”

“Before I agree to those terms, I need to know: what’s your stance on dating a colleague? Or letting a colleague buy you a whiskey and take you to her favorite alien pool bar?”

“You know…I think I could make an exception to that no fraternization rule for you.” The smile Alex got in return made her heart stutter. “And, uh, what’s your policy on hooking up before the first date?”

“Considering you’ve already seen my favorite vibrator and know more about me than any of my exes? I think”—she slid closer—“that is _more_ ”—her arm curled around Alex’s shoulders—“than okay.”

Alex leaned into Maggie’s embrace, letting her lips find Maggie’s as they set a slow, easy rhythm that was broken only by Joan’s arrival, one hand flung over her eyes as she yelled out: “I’ve got my eyes shut, but if you want your dinner to make it to you and not the ground, you should probably make yourselves decent enough for me to open them!”

“You’re good, Joan,” Maggie called out, chuckling under her breath as Joan peeked out from between her fingers to check first before removing her hand.

“Between you and me,” Joan said, as she left the two ramekins on the side table, “there’s nothing worse than getting macaroni in the jacuzzi. Word to the wise…”

It was enough to get them both out of the hot tub, grimacing at their pruney skin as they dried off. Still, Alex wouldn’t trade the hours they’d spent in there for anything, and soon enough the wrinkled skin was hidden beneath the baggy sweats and t-shirt she’d borrowed from Maggie.

Over dinner, they talked about some of their favorite shows, brainstorming lists of movies they might want to watch together when they got back to National City. Even though Maggie had a secret soft spot for mindless comedies, and Alex would mainline horror if Kara let her, they found areas for compromise. Besides, given the way they couldn’t quite keep their hands off of one another, Alex didn’t really think it would matter what they had playing on the screen.

By the time they’d finished eating—just enough to absorb the last of the alcohol—Maggie was practically in Alex’s lap, her fingers trailing tantalizing patterns along the short hairs at the nape of Alex’s neck.

“Not to be too presumptuous,” Maggie murmured, her lips slowly drifting along Alex’s shoulder, “but should we move to the bedroom?”

Alex stood and held a hand out to Maggie. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”

Biting her lower lip, Maggie tugged Alex towards the doorway, stopping only to run back and do the deadbolt and chain lock on the door. Then they were stumbling into the bedroom, hands already slipping under layers of soft cotton, seeking out warm skin.

For as fast as they undressed each other, their touches were reverent. Every inch of skin that was uncovered was savored, fingertips trailing along forearms, the pad of Maggie’s thumb swirling along the inside of Alex’s wrist, Alex’s hands and tongue caressing Maggie’s breasts—one, then the other, until Maggie was panting softly beneath her.

“God, this is even better than I imagined,” Maggie groaned as Alex’s fingers curled beneath the waistband of Maggie’s underwear.

Her head poked back up at that. “You…you imagined this?”

Maggie’s cheeks warmed under the attention. “Oh. I mean…not—not in a creepy way. Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

But Alex was shaking her head, the dull ache between her legs having transformed into an insistent throbbing at the thought of Maggie—of Maggie and that vibrator… “Tell me.”

“What?”

Alex’s fingers dipped lower, swiping through wetness as Maggie’s hips jumped, canting towards the touch. “Tell me what you thought about. Tell me what you did.”

“ _Oh._ ”

“Please.” Alex trailed teasingly light touches over the top of Maggie’s boyshorts, grinning as Maggie’s hands fisted into the sheets.

“I—you—you’d come here so sure you were right. That I’d been some fuck up about the luggage on purpose. So cocky and annoying and hot.” She sucked in a shuddering inhale. “And then you were talking about finding my vibrator, and I—I had this fantasy. That maybe you liked the thought of me using it. Maybe you’d beg me to watch.”

“Did you?” Alex’s voice was thick with want, and her fingers froze as she waited for an answer.

“Did I what?”

“Did you use it?”

“Yes,” Maggie hissed, and Alex practically left claw marks down her chest as she lunged forward, pinning Maggie to the bed.

“Fuck, you’re so hot.” She didn’t give Maggie a chance to respond, taking Maggie’s lower lip between her own and sucking. “Would you…if I asked, would you?”

It took a minute, then Maggie was flipping them over. “I don’t think I said asked, Danvers,” she rasped, kissing a trail of searing kisses down her chest.

“If I…if I begged?”

Maggie was on her in an instant, legs tangling together as Maggie slipped a thigh between Alex’s, hips canting forward and drawing twin moans out of them both.

“Wanna feel you,” Alex managed, pulling back just enough for them to clumsily shuck the last bits of clothing between them. And then Maggie was straddling her thigh again—only this time it wasn’t damp cotton; it was Maggie, and her skin was hot, and she was practically dripping, and she was everything Alex had ever wanted without even knowing it. Her fingers curled around Maggie’s ass, encouraging her as she rolled her hips into Alex, finding a rhythm that left both of them crying out.

And Alex was fairly certain she could die happy from this alone. But there was still the promise of getting to watch Maggie and all she had to do was—“ _Please_.” Maggie cocked her head to the side, an unasked question on her lips. “Show me. Please.”

Fumbling for a minute in the bedside table, Maggie emerged with the pale blue wand in her hand, shifting up until she was straddling Alex’s waist. “Are you su—?”

“Please, Maggie.”

With a nod and a flick of her fingers, the vibrator rumbled to life, and Alex watched with wide eyes as Maggie trailed it down her stomach before dipping it between her legs.

“I—normally I’d tease myself, but I can’t wait.” Maggie’s breath was coming fast and hard, the muscles in her thighs already tensing. And then she was lowering the vibrator and rolling her hips into it, back arching as she let out breathy little moans.

 _Fuck_. Alex had meant to watch. Only to watch. But her hands had other ideas as one reached up to cup Maggie’s breast, the other scratching along her inner thigh. Maggie practically fell forward, bracing herself above Alex with one hand as the other worked between her legs.

And then Maggie was coming, her mouth open in a silent cry as her muscles twitched until she finally collapsed into Alex’s chest, body still shuddering through the aftershocks as she managed to pull the vibrator away.

“That,” Alex whispered, carding her fingers through Maggie’s hair as she caught her breath, “was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”

Blinking up at her from beneath long, dark eyelashes, Maggie slowly let her hand drift down until she was between Alex’s legs, her mouth trailing teasing nips and gentle kisses around Alex’s breasts.

Alex was already so close. Too close. “Can you…inside me?”

Maggie nodded, easily slipping one, then two fingers inside Alex. She started slow as she gradually built to a rhythm, twisting and curling her fingers, learning what made Alex gasp and whimper and fist her hands into the sheets.

Alex could feel herself clenching around Maggie’s fingers already, sweat prickling at her skin, her blood like molten lava racing through her veins.

“Can I use this?” Maggie asked, holding up the vibrator.

As soon as Alex nodded, it was on her skin, just close enough to her clit to drive her half out of her mind without being too much too fast. But then Maggie was circling the toy and curling her fingers, and what felt like every muscle in Alex’s entire body seized up until she was crashing over the edge, Maggie’s name on her lips.

As soon as Alex had come down from her high, Maggie curled around her, gently stroking her fingers up and down Alex’s arm as Alex’s breathing returned to normal.

“Better than what I imagined, too,” Alex admitted through a yawn.

“Wait. Danvers!”

But Alex just tugged Maggie even closer, dragging up the sheets to cover them as she snuggled into the warmth of Maggie’s body. “Maybe tomorrow,” she murmured, her words slurring together with the kind of bone-deep sleepiness born of long days and good sex.

The last thing Alex remembered was Maggie insisting, “I’m holding you to that.” And then the world was peacefully dark.

\---

The next few days were spent in a haze of sex and talking and hiking and a few more rounds of Joan’s homemade game, which was, they could admit, a really great way of getting to know someone on a deep level.

They made one last trip to town so that Alex could spend a few hours at the conference and make a big show out of being “very ill.” Then she packed her room and checked out a day early to spend the last of the weekend at Maple Grove, which had, inexplicably, turned into one of Alex’s favorite places on earth.

By the time check out rolled around, Alex could even admit she would be sad to say goodbye the place and the little bubble of intimacy it had created for them, even if she and Maggie only had to be separate for one lengthy flight—“You better not let any other pretty girls take your luggage this time,” Maggie had warned her—and one more night before their official first date in National City.

“You know,” Maggie mused as she handed the keys back to Joan, “I never thought I’d say this a few weeks ago—or, hell, even at the start of this week—but I’m glad you guys don’t do refunds.”

A waspy looking woman poked her head out from the room behind the front desk, pulling her glasses off as she furrowed her brow. “We offer refunds.”

Speaking even more loudly than usual, Joan acted like there had never been an interruption. “Well I’m just so glad you could rekindle the flame!”

“Joan,” the woman snapped.

“Yes, dear?”

 _Oh._ So that was Helen… Which was somehow both completely surprising and utterly expected.

Helen pinched her nose and closed her eyes, looked entirely unsurprised. “Did you learn nothing on the business retreat I sent you on?”

“About as much as this one,” Maggie muttered under her breath at the same time that Joan shrugged, saying, “Who needs seminars when I have proof that our business works perfectly standing right in front of me?”

“Don’t even start—”

“It brought two perfect strangers together—”

“Strangers?” Helen, Maggie, and Alex all asked at once.

“Oh please,” Joan scoffed. “I’m old, not blind. And no one’s gonna believe that your pillow girlfriend turned into this one overnight.”

Maggie’s cheeks flushed, and Alex cackled, and Helen simply looked confused. But then Joan was whispering something into her ear that had her snickering, and Alex really, really didn’t want to know what she’d just been told.

“Well!” Alex said, her voice much too loud for the small space. “Best get going! Have some flights to catch. So nice meeting you!”

“You too, not-Jess!” Joan called at her retreating figure “Don’t forget to leave a positive review for Couple’s Land in our online shop! I’ll know if you don’t!”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Twitter and Tumblr @sapphicscholar
> 
> If you enjoyed it, I always love hearing your thoughts <3


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